Summer solstice sunrise at Stonehenge, June 21, 2005.
To everyone who celebrates the solstice: have a happpy day!
And if you don't celebrate the solstice, have a happy day anyway!
I can hardly believe that this is the most daylight we're going to get. It's bittersweet for me because I like the long days.
20 COMMENTS:
Thank you! And, of course, despite it being "midsummer's day" it's officially the start of summer now.
I know we hardly seem to have had a summer and here we are at the longest day.
Happy Solstice all!
This was the sunrise I enjoyed here in Keynsham:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardthelandlord/4720094172/
Imagine that accompanied by a loud and joyful dawn chorus... glorious. :-)
Living in South Florida, the summer solstice doesn't particularly affect us. Still, I always notice it on the calendar and even pointed it out to my husband this morning. So Happy Summer Solstice to you too!
Simon, that's always puzzled me!
Petty, it comes so quickly.
Richard, I was thinking of you when I posted this. That's a glorious photo!
Wendy, is that because the daylight hours don't vary much, or just that you have so much glorious sunshine? You could share some of it with us!
Yes, it saddens me too that the days and the sweet twilight begin to shorten.
Bernita, at least the sun has finally made an appearance here!
@ Bernita, the days may get shorter now, but we have the harvest to look forward to...
I've already had my first strawberries, the 3 varieties of lettuce and tomatoes are doing great and I've got leeks and onions on the go ready for the colder days when we need 'stew-pot' food for comfort.
Seasons come, seasons go - pretty much like we do - and one day I'll be the compost it's all growing in.
Once you accept your own mortality with neither fear or resentment the seasons pass much more sweetly because you can relax and enjoy whatever you have. (imho) :-)
I love the long days too. But, you know, we have a lot left! And it's such good weather today -- enjoy it!
I can hardly believe that this is the most daylight we're going to get. It's bittersweet for me because I like the long days.
Ditto, although the warm weather tends to come after the longest day of the year (I don't get how that works.)
When I visited Hawaii one winter, that was the one thing that kept my trip from feeling like a return to summer--the sun went down at 6 PM. Bwip! No more light.
Richard, I know you were talking to Bernita but I'm not convinced by Once you accept your own mortality with neither fear or resentment the seasons pass much more sweetly because you can relax and enjoy whatever you have. It's not my mortality that makes me hate the dark and the cold, it's a love of creature comforts!
Talli, we do have a lot left, but we won't get more light than this. I feel the opposite in winter when we pass the shortest day - then I feel relief that it can only get better.
jj, you're right about the warm weather. In the UK I'd always supposed it was due to being surrounded by sea which warms and cools more slowly than the land. But so much of what I "knew" as a kid has turned out to be wrong!
Have a wonderful summer solstice. Wonderful weather for it too. Isn't mid summers day on June 24?
Happy Solstice to you, too. :)
I also regret the shortening, gradual or not, of the days. I need the light!
(but I could do without some of the current heat and humidity--ugh).
Ann, it looks like the first day of summer is 21st June and Mid-Summer's Day is 24th June. I knew we had short summers round here...
raine, so you're solar-powered too!
@FH This creature is comfortable pretty much regardless of external conditions, because it's come to believe all that external stuff simply doesn't matter.
Unless they've experienced homelessness, few people realise how little they 'need' as opposed to merely 'want'... and the 'want' loses a lot of it's strength when the object of your desire is a weight you have to carry every step of the way.
I'm sure there's a thought-experiment in there somewhere, along the lines of "you can only carry 10 kilos, what would you choose to take?"
Richard, you must just be stronger than I am. When I'm in an unheated place in winter I feel uncomfortably cold and there's no way I can convince myself that all that external stuff doesn't matter. And when there's no sun I hate it - although visualising myself above the clouds in the sunshine helps.
If I could only carry 10 kilos, would I take the cats? I wonder.
Beautiful picture! Happy summer solstice, a day late!
Thanks, Robin!
@FH If the cats *want* to go with you, they won't count as weight because they'll follow you under their own steam.
And if your status in the pride is good, they may even let you share whatever dinner they might catch...
Oh, Richard, don't! We had a live "present" given to us today and as it was wounded we had to take it to the vet...
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